Thigh High Boots
by Pirate Thirteen
Summary: Getting nice cloths when you are a lady qunari can be very difficult.


When Rhian Adaar was a little girl, she loved to wear dresses. The pinker, the flowerier, the sparklier, the better. Her family never fully understood it. Initially they all dismissed it as silly behavior Rhian picked up while playing with little elven girls in the village. Her parents did cave and began to enjoy helping their daughter dress up for the day when she wanted to. Her parents would even take turns braiding her hair with flowers and ribbons whenever their daughter asked for it. Rhian was always careful to not wear her dresses when she wanted to play in the woods or on rainy days. Their family couldn't really afford too many, most of her clothing were well worn hand me down's from her older brothers. So she treated each dress like they were made of the finest materials from Orlais.

Then puberty came along. For a while, she wore adult women's cloths, but by sixteen all that she could ever find big enough for her were men's clothing. To get more effeminate clothes at all made for her size, the amount of materials led to a cost that was far too expensive. Even for premade men's clothing there was a bit of an extra expense. The cost and limitations part of the many reasons so many tal-vashoth were more inclined to go without much on. But for her, a vashoth, she had grown accustomed to the social modesties of the non-qunari world. So large men's clothing it was. However getting tops that could fit around her breasts and pants that could fit around her hips was still a great pain. When she did find something that could fit around those sections of her body, she'd end up with a tent around her midsection and each pant might as well as have been a dress themselves. To fix this, she had to learn how to do some basic sewing in order to adjust the fabric just right. Which required a lot of trial and error and clothing so butchered they were useless.

When she joined the Valo-kas mercenaries, she was able to help the Tal- Vashoth qunari women she worked with figure out their clothing situations. If they wished it. Most seemed to be determined to remain in direct rebellion of the southern Thedas modesty standards for women. After all, they didn't leave the Qun just to be put under another restrictive social structure. Rhian's mother was a bit in this boat, she would work in the field topless or walk about the home stark naked in front of her sons and no one would blink an eye. But if she decided to go into town she covered up. She believed it was good to show respect to the culture of the people that tolerated her presence enough to allow her to settle her family down just outside their village. The Valo-Kas qunari women weren't willing to make such a compromise, especially since the men seemed to go about half naked unquestioned all the time. And frankly, no one was really going to challenge any of them to do otherwise. The men and women alike would make fun of Rhian's insistence to remain covered up all the time. Especially Shokraker. Not even the claim of the cold weather seemed a good enough excuse for them.

Rhian had learned real quick to never complain about wearing the ill fitting, not so fashionable nor pretty clothing. It was a fact of life that she was one of the very, very few qunari women outside Par Vollen in all of Thedas. Whenever the Valo-kas passed through a city, she couldn't help window shopping. Fabric shops, shoe shops, dress shops, even the more fashionable men's clothing shops for the nobles drew her attention. More than once she had shopkeepers chase her away because their customers were disturbed by the sight of a qunari peering into the windows. She didn't dare bother to try to step into the shops. Even if whoever was inside didn't care that she was there, there was that embarrassing certainty that there would be nothing to fit her and she would be unable to afford anything custom made. Any money she made with the mercenaries was put to use on good, but ill fitting gear for her work.

Then the inquisition came along.

"Wait, you've got tailors and smiths that'll make clothes and armor in my size at no cost to me?" Rhian asked.

"Within reason of course," Cassandra said.

"And shoemakers?"

"Yes..."

"Can I make a special request?"

"Within reason."

"Can I have thigh high leather boots?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Our resources are a bit limited right now," Josephine smiled weakly.

"I saw a herd of druffalo on the other side of that pond out there. I'll just go kill one myself for the leather. No big deal."

Cullen shook his head, "No offense Adaar, but thigh high boots for you could probably make three pairs of boots for the soldiers."

"Then just give me a week. I'll slaughter half the herd and we can have steak and thigh high boots for everyone."

The four humans looked at each other quietly. Cullen and Cassandra both shook their heads. Leliana bit her lip, folded her hands together and pressed her index fingers against her chin. She seemed to want to say something but held back at the stern looks she got from Cassandra and Cullen.

Then Josephine shook her head as well, "Look, Rhian, we need you to focus on more important things."

"This is important. I have a random thing in my hand we know very little about and it's killing me. I've been wearing ill fitting, butchered men's clothing for well over a decade now. The fact that I'm getting something that will fit me right alone is great, but if I can just have a pair of thigh high boots. Just this one personal thing made out of leather I'll go hunt down myself. Nothing really fancy, doesn't need a lot of detail," Rhian looked at Leliana and leaned towards her, "They'll be as tall as Varric, they'll look amazing. That'll be enough for me."

Leliana finally spoke up, "I don't really see why this is such a big deal. If she's willing to get the leather herself, let her have her boots. I'm sure no one in Haven will mind. We are asking a lot of her without very much in return. "

Cullen rubbed his forehead, "I've got a migraine, excuse me."

The next day, the Tavern started to serve steak to the people of Haven. Then one evening they got to see their first qunari dancing. Something once thought impossible by many. Let alone, one with such a large smile on their face. Rhian danced around the tavern in her new thigh high boots, a pink scouts jacket, and a pair of pants that was far more flattering on her shape and comfortable than anything she had ever worn before.


End file.
